EDD: Well, the 'real' one based on my LMP is 5th August, but since DD came at 43 +1 weeks last time (also based on LMP) I decided to be a little flexible with the truth, so to the MWs, docs and everyone else who asks (family included!) the EDD is 12th August - and along with that I remind everyone that DD came late so not to even start to expect to see this one before late August!! I would have lied more and given myself even more wiggle room, but I wanted to get the 20 week anatomy scan, and worried that if baby was measuring too far ahead for the dates I gave them that they'd start freaking out about that instead. It's annoying, because I'm still likely to go past the arbitrary date of 10 days past EDD that they will 'allow' me to go to and have a HB - but I'm planning to just stand my ground on that one. (That's a bit of a novel!
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Name: Lisa
Age: 31
Location: Liverpool, UK
Family: Just DH and 2 year old DD so far.
Baby's Gender (hopes or guesses): We specifically didn't want to find out this time, so told the tech not to look at the U/S. DH thinks girl, I think boy. That's what we both thought last time, and DH was right - we'll see this time. I think I'd slightly prefer a girl over a boy - partly because I always wanted a sister (I have one younger brother) and because we already have a whole bunch of cute girl stuff so it'd be less expensive too.
Names you like: We have the boy name picked out since last time; Colm (after my grandfather) James (after DH's grandfather). We're still a bit dithery on girls' names but have tentatively picked Saoirse (my choice - Irish name meaning 'freedom') Lily (DH's choice, to go with DD's middle name of Rose).
Birth Plans/Preferences: Planning another homebirth. Last time I was living in the Czech Republic which is ridiculously anti-homebirth. Still managed to find an under-the-radar midwife, but a whole host of things conspired against me and I ended up with a very probably unnecessary and extremely traumatic hospital transfer and birth rape to 'punish' me for my choice to homebirth.
I finally convinced DH to leave the Czech Republic to move back to the UK, in large part because I knew I would eventually want another baby but there was no way in hell I was going to have another one in that country - I wanted to be somewhere that was at least somewhat supportive of natural birth/homebirth.
I still get panic attacks about the thought of the birth - I have PTSD from the first one but have hired a doula and am doing Hypnobabies - trying my best to ensure that I have the resources to make this a healing birth.
My ideal preference would be to UC, but DH would be less than useless in that situation, and I wouldn't want the doula to get into trouble. But I've already told them that I basically don't want to call the midwives until I'm pushing (never got to pushing last time) so with a bit of luck it might be a semi-accidental UC
Strangest craving/aversion this pregnancy: I can't stomach tea or coffee at all - odd because I love them both when not pregnant. And a bit annoying, because when I really need the occasional caffeine fix I have to resort to drinking a can of coke - far less healthy than a nice cup of tea! Otherwise nothing really.
Hobbies/Interests: I used to be pretty active, but since having DD I've turned into a bit of a couch potato, because the things I liked doing I couldn't bring DD along for, and I couldn't leave her either (seriously high-needs baby/toddler - I've only started to be able to leave her with her dad or grans for an hour or two in the last 6 months or so!!) So now, my hobbies are mostly reading, walking when the weather's decent, researching 'stuff' on the internet - quite a lot of parenting things, but I also love to just jump into Wiki and start chasing links
Oh, and also the distance learning proof-reading course I'm doing at the moment!
Occupation: Well, now I'm a SAHM. Before DD I was a TEFL teacher and teacher trainer - a challenging but rewarding job. I think I might like to get back to it eventually, but I've been out of it for so long even now that to get back I'd have to do all sorts of re-training... Ideally we're hoping I'll be able to SAH with the two kids (we're done after this one) until they're both in school. But money is very tight, so I'm taking the proofreading course in the hopes that I'll be able to do a bit of WAH too, to bring in a bit extra while saving on childcare
How you met your SO: We were working at the same school. He'd worked there for years previously, then just before I'd started there he'd left to go back to the UK. But then the following year he came back. We were sharing a class on our timetable so met up to discuss our class plan, and liked each other immediately. To the point where after meeting up he pretended he needed to catch the metro too to have an excuse to walk to the metro stop with me, in the rain, no less! The next day, a Friday, we were out at a work party, sloped off by ourselves, had 'the' talk, kissed and were inseparable for the rest of the weekend. The Saturday I'd arranged to go to a sex expo with some friends for a laugh, so dragged him along - we joke that that was our first date! The follwing Tuesday he told me he loved me. Shortly afterwards we moved in together, got engaged a couple of months later and finally got married just over a year after we first met!
How you ended up at MDC: I had come across it a few times in the 'natural birth and natural parenting' searches I was doing to prepare for DD's birth, but I wasn't really sure about online forums back then. Then afterwards we also had huge breastfeeding problems - I found kellymom.com first and joined the forum there so I could get some help. Really enjoyed being able to 'chat' to people again - having DD was very isolating for me - but wanted *more* chatting. A few people over there mentioned MDC so over I popped! Plenty of stuff to talk about here!!
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That sounds like a rough labour to me. I'm glad you had a better experience second time around. 
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